The Taming Of The Shrew 'And Ten Things I Hate About You'

Essay Writing Task – Gender and Status

How do the authors explore the concepts of gender and social status?

Individuals subject to discrimination, due to gender and social status, have their self-confidence deteriorated and thus their potential limited. This idea is explored in both William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (1967) and Gil Junger’s 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), through patriarchy values and separation between classes. Discrimination based upon gender and social status leads to the victim having their possibilities limited.

In The Taming of the Shrew, gender inequalities are explored through the patriarchy that prevails and the sexist assumptions about a woman’s proper place in marriage and society. In Act 1, Scene

As opposed to the first wave of feminism which focused on legal boundaries for women, the second wave of feminism sought to remove any inequalities that woman experienced. In contrast to The Taming of the Shrew, the context in which 10 Things I hate About You was created promotes female independence and control. This notion is shown in Kat’s dialogue, “I don't like to do what people expect. Why should I live up to their expectations instead of my own?”. This shows that Kat does not want to live up to the expectations of a women and instead believes that she has her own rights to act however she wishes, opposing the concept of gender inequality. Kat teaches us to subvert gender norms and carve out our own paths, the paths that we desire for ourselves, as opposed to those that society tells us we should attempt to attain through the way she acts and how she refuses to be nice because that is what is expected of her and her gender which is shown in her dialogue: “a firm believer in doing something for your own reasons”. Our society no longer considers violence against women acceptable, and thus shows us how much the times have changed since